Two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) sound techniques present a perspective of a sound field to a listener at a listening location. The techniques enhance the perception of sound spatialization by exploiting sound localization (i.e., a listener's ability to identify the location or origin of a detected sound in direction and distance). This can be achieved by using multiple discrete audio channels routed to an array of sound sources (e.g., loudspeakers). In order to detect an acoustic signal from any arbitrary, subjectively perceptible direction, it is necessary to know about the distribution of the sound sources. Known methods that allow such detection are, for example, the well-known and widely used stereo format and the Dolby Pro Logic II® format, wherein directional audio information is encoded into the input audio signal to provide a directionally (en)coded audio signal before generating the desired directional effect when reproduced by the loudspeakers. Besides such specific encoding and decoding procedures, there exist more general procedures such as panning algorithms, (e.g., the ambisonic algorithm and the vector base amplitude panning (VBAP) algorithm). These algorithms allow encoding/decoding of directional information in a flexible way so that it is no longer necessary to know while encoding about the decoding particulars so that encoding can be decoupled from decoding. However, further improvements are desirable.